AN OPEN LETTER TO JUKEBOX OPERATORS
Promote phonograph bu-siness
The present economic condition-called many things ,
but all indicating a downward trend-is actually providing
a stimulus to the jukebox industry.
Many places (taverns or lounges, e.g.) have found that
professional musicians or disc jockeys are proving to be
too expensive , relative to the added income they
produce at the door and at the 6ar. Yet these locations
cater to a dancing clientele, and management must
provide the desired type of music or lose their customers.
Not surprisingly, many locations are turning or
returning to the jukebox to provide the needed music.
This eliminates the entrance charge that only helped
defray the cost of live entertainment or a disc jockey, but
irritated customers. With a phonograph, the price
per selection can be set to provide a protitable income, or
it can be used as a promotional tool to draw a larger
crowd-by free play , five-cent night, ten selections for a
dollar, etc.
Aggressive , promotion-minded managers use the
jukebox in many ways to stimulate their overall business .
In addition to "free play nights" or "five cent nights ," they
run special events such as Music from the 1930s and
'40s, polka parties, Square Dance Night, Music by the
Big Bands , Roaring Twenties, Venetian Nights , an
Evening of Irish Music, and waltz parties.
Some locations have their phonographs programmed
Mailbox
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Pleased with Stern
I would like to take this oppor-
tunity to publicly express my appre-
ciation to Mr. Gary Stern and Stern
Electronics ,. Inc. regarding the ac-
quisition of Seeburg .
The declared bankrupcy of
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two ways: for "touch type" dancing until eleven o'clock
and disco type dancing from eleven until closing .
There are some locations that use two phonographs
located in separate rooms. Each phonograph is selec-
tively programmed to please a certain type of audience.
Properly used , the phonograph is a very effective
promotional tool that has a direct and measurable
influence on profits . When you consider that a jukebox is
provided to the location without any capital investment ,
is serviced, maintained, and in most cases, programmed
without charge-and that the location owner shares in
the machine's profits and that it stimulates his overall
business-a phonograph turns out to be a most unique
and profit-producing piece of equipment for the location
owner.
For many operators, the jukebox has always been
there-producing profits year-in, year-out. They take the
phonograph for granted and tend to overlook its potential
for increased profits. Added profit potential for the
operator is also made possible by the new phonographs
now available .
Joseph E. Senesac
Advertising and Sales Promotion Manager,
Rock-Ola Manufacturing Corporation
Seeburg had American Amusement
and many other operators in a
dilemma . A majority of our juke-
boxes were manufactured by See-
burg . The unavailability of Seeburg
parts had us believing that our
Seeburg boxes were almost worthless
and therefore would place a great
number of operators in a financial
crisis if these boxes had to be
replaced .
Stern Electronics has always been
a name one could trusf in the coin-
operated amusement business . I was
very pleased that a company of
Stern's stature has given new life to
such an integral part of the music
operators of America .
Wishing Stern Electronics well-
deserved success in the Seeburg
venture ...
Gary W. Domino
American Amusement of
Morgan City, Inc.
Morgan City, Louisiana
'Red-tape waste'
First and foremost, why are
operators forced to pay for "double
dipping" practices?
Since jukebox operators are sub-
jected to the same , why does a
Copyright Fee Permit have to match
a serial number , rather than a name
and address of a located coin phono-
graph? If a jukebox operator must
"change-out" a machine in a local
bar at midnight so patrons can listen
to "something" related to composers
and publishers, he must have a fee
on every unused phonograph in his
shop , even though each of those
units are used from (maybe) zero to
75 percent of earning capabilities .
Since the days of Copyright Fee
Permits, a jukebox operator has to
wait an extended length of time
before he can legally put his
hard -earned capital to work for
him-new coin phonograph equip-
ment-in terms of remodeling .
Since we operators are required to
spend extra , unrecoverable , wasted
hours for keeping our business in
unnecessary legal formation , con-
forming to such crazy policies , we
have lost the same valuable time that
could have been utilized in analyzing
and scrutinizing the potential value of
thousands of annual new releases , to
pick a winner in the record program-
ming field.
PLAY METER, August, 1980